Electrospinning and hydrothermal synthesis of recyclable MoS2/CNFs hybrid with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance

Abstract

In this work, a two-step synthesis route combining an electrospinning method and a hydrothermal process was used to prepare MoS2/CNFs hybrid. CNFs was applied as the matrix for the nucleation and growth of MoS2 nanosheets. In this hybrid, the crisscrossed MoS2 nanosheets were randomly aligned and densely packed over the surface of CNFs. We probed the photocatalytic activity of MoS2/CNFs hybrid to degrade rhodamine B (Rh B) in an aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. The hybrid displayed higher photodegradation performance relative to MoS2 and mechanical mixture of MoS2 with CNFs, with 67% Rh B completely degraded over 5 h-period. We attributed such enhancement in photocatalytic activity to the enhanced absorption property and electrical conductivity due to the synergy between MoS2 and CNFs. The hybrid can furthermore be easily separated from the solution and reused for the subsequent photodegradation cycles. We verified the negligible loss in the photodegradation activity of MoS2/CNFs hybrid towards Rh B during the three subsequent cycles. The high photocatalytic activity and recyclability of the hybrid render its practical application to degrade organic pollutants (i.e., dye compounds) in industrial wastewater.